Manufacture of emulsion-type sausages



United rates Patent MANUFACTURE or EMULSION-TYPE SAUSAGES Elmer F.Glabe, Chicago, Ill, assignor to the United States of America asrepresented by the Secretary of Agriculture No Drawing. Application June7, 1955, Serial No. 513,918

1 Claim. (Cl. 99-109) This invention relates to the manufacture ofemulsiontype sausages such as frankfurter sausages, Polish sausage, andBologna. It relates more particularly to an emulsiontype sausagecomposition which possesses improved texture and general eatingqualities, and possesses, moreover, a high stability against physicaland structural deterioration.

This invention is related to the invention described and claimed in myapplication, Serial No. 382,492, filed August 11, 195 3, and is animprovement thereover.

In my copending application referred to above, I have disclosed that theaddition of Gelsoy to emulsion-type sausages results in improvedtexture, water retention, and stability of the sausages. The apparentaction of Gelsoy is to stabilize or otherwise affect the emulsioncharacter of the water and solids, permitting the latter to absorb andhold more water during the processing operations.

In this specification and claim, the term Gelsoy refers to awater-extractable proteinaceous material from oilfree soybean materialthat has been previously washed or extracted with a lower aliphaticalcohol, such as ethanol. Gelsoy and methods for producing it aredescribed in U. S. Patent No. 2,495,706, granted to De Voss, Beckel, andBelter. Briefly stated, the product is prepared by treating aproteinaceous soybean material such as hexane-extracted soybean flakeswith an alcohol, such as ethanol in a concentration of from about 50percent to absolute. This is primarily a washing treatment to removeantigelling factors and other alcohol-soluble matter. The treatedsoybean material is then extracted with water, and the proteinaceousmaterial recovered from the aqueous ex tract is Gelsoy.

Even though my prior invention results in an improved product, the useof an appreciable amount of Gelsoy is required. For example, bestresults are obtained, using 1 to 2 percent of Gelsoy based on themeat-fat formula used. This ingredient is relatively expensive and addsto the cost of the product.

I have now discovered that the amount of Gelsoy required inemulsion-type sausage formulae may be reduced to one-half or less thanthat required in my previous invention. This is achieved by adding aminor quantity of sodium hexametaphosphate. The ratio of this compoundto Gelsoy is preferably about 1:3 to 1:10, The effect of the twoingredients is surprising, for the resulting sausage possesses anexcellent texture and eating quality, the sausage after cooking has afull casing and a definitely juicy texture. There is no local separationof juices, when made according to this invention, and the flavor isexcellent, the spices being well distributed throughout the meat.However, when the ingredients are employed singly in the same amount, oreven in considerably higher amounts, the effects are only medium indegree.

In general, the procedure for the manufacture of the sausage asdisclosed in my pending application is as follows:

The manufacture of emulsion-type sausages is acomplex operationconsisting of chemical reactions within the products which are not yetthoroughly understood. The emulsion involved is one which is greatlyinfluenced by the degree and amount of mechanical chopping or agitation.It is common practice to add ice during the chopping operation to holddown the temperature which would normally rise due to the rapid actionof the chopper. The ice, of course, is converted to water during theoperation, and this water must be absorbed and held in suspensionthroughout the chopping, stutfing, smoking, cooking, and cooling stepsas they may be involved in the process.

Many substances have been used heretofore to assist the absorption ofwater and to render the emulsion stable. These substances includecereals, starchy binders, powdered milk, soybean flour, and the like.The kinds and amounts of additives vary greatly with the particularmanufacturing locality. In many important localities it is commonpractice to include rather large proportions of water, usually added asice during the chopping operation.

In general, the method of manufacture may vary over wide limits toprovide for the particular type of sausage desired, the individualrecipe, and the like. The formulae in which this invention is mostadvantageous, however, are

, those which call for macerating a proportion of lean meat and aproportion of fat in the presence of added water, preferably added atleast in part as ice. Seasoning such as salt, spices, sugar, and thelike, as Well as seasoning agents, may be present during maceration ormay be added later.

It is convenient to add the Gelsoy-sodium hexametaphosphatetogethenpreferably with a small amount of starch or dextrin. .Thepurpose of the latter ingredient is to aid in dissemination anddistribution during the subsequent operations. A typical mixture of theGelsoyphosphate additive contains 5 parts of Gelsoy, 4 parts of dextrinor starch, and 1 part sodium hexametaphosphate. The mixture may be addedat any time during or before the maceration; i. e., in the grinding orchopping steps. For best results it should be added at such a time as toafford uniform distribution throughout the sausage mass. The macerationsteps are then followed by a series of finishing operations whichincludes stufling, smoking, and cooking. These latter steps may becarried out as is commonly done in this art.

As anyone skilled in the art will recognize, it is not necessary thatthe ingredients be added in any special admixture or in any specialsequence. However, this invention will be described in detail employinga Gelsoyphosphate mixture as above described, it being understood thatthe ingredients may be added separately.

According to the present invention, the Gelsoy-phosphate mixture mayalso be used in conjunction with either or both of the customary starchyor protein binders, as, for example, cereal or dried skim-milk powder.Its advantages over each are distinctive, however, for it possesses thewater-holding properties of the former without reducing the proteincontent of the sansage, and it is superior in water-binding to thelatter. It also provides a sausage with a firm texture without adverselyaflecting the flavor.

The beneficial effects of Gelsoy, according to this r invention may berealized over the range of 0.1 to 1.0

percent based on the meat-fat formula, the corresponding range ofphosphate being 0.02 to 0.2 percent. As the following specific exampleswill show, even in comparison with the invention of my copendingapplication, this present invention permits a reduction in the amount ofnonmeat ingredients. One of its most important com-.

mercial aspects is that it increases the yield of finished sausage.

- 3 EXAMPLE 1 A series of experimental batches of sausages were made asfollows:

Preparation of meat materials Percent Lean beef 36.7 Lean pork 18.3 Porkfat 45.0

To 100 grams of the above composition were added the following:

Grams Salt 2 Potassium nitrate 1.27

Potassium nitrite 0.127

No spice was added in order to make observation of flavor differencescaused by the additive more outstandmg.

The meat, previously cut into 1-inch pieces, was mixed by hand with thesalt and potassium nitrate and potassium nitrite. The meat was thenground through a V -inch die, and the resulting ground meat was storedat 40 F. for several hours. This coarsely ground combination is thebasic mixture.

Chopping Small batches of meat were selected for laboratory testoperations because of the feasibility of obtaining more uniform rawmaterials prepared as above. Another feature is the uniformity ofchopping operations. These were carried out in a Waring blendor, whichhas been found to give an action fairly comparable to an ordinarycommercial silent cutter. The chopping requires about 3 minutes, but iscarried to a point where the appearance of the batch indicates goodemulsification of the fat and water. This is similar to the practicenormally used in plant operations. Experience has shown that if thechopping in the Waring blendor is carried to the critical point, gooddifferentiation in the separation of fat in various frankfurters can beobserved. Ice water and other additives are placed in this Waringblendor, as is normally done commercially.

The sausage mix was stuffed into Visking casings by means of ahand-operated pressure cylinder. The casings are then tied ofi intoconventional lengths.

Heat treatment in lieu of smoke house Normally the sausages would besubjected to a smokehouse operation. For laboratory purposes, however,the sausages are subjected to similar temperature combinations, butwithout the presence of smoke. This is done in a thermostaticallycontrolled oven held at the following temperatures:

135 F. for 30 minutes, raised to 150 F. for 30 minutes, raised to 165 F.for 60 minutes, raised to- 180 F. until the interior temperature of thefrankfurters reached 150 R, which should not take longer than 20minutes.

Cooking The frankfurters are removed from the heat chamber and plungedinto water at 160 F. for 5 minutes.

Cooling aratlon. The results are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1.-SAUSAGE EXPERIMENTS Fat separation Added No. water,

Percent Experiment Experiment N 0. 1 N o. 2

1 Control-no binder Excessive. Excessive. 2 O0ntr0l3% nonfat dry- 3Medium mall milk solids. amount. 3 1.0% Gelsoy 3 Small Do.

amount. 4 0.5% Gelsoy 3 Medium..- Excessive.

0.1% Sodium hexameta 3 do Do.

phosphate. 6 0.4% Wheat dextrin 3 Excessive. D0. 7 1.0%Gelsoyphosphatemix- 5 Siight Slight.

ture.

Percent Grelsoy 50 10 40 EXAMPLE 2 A larger scale experiment was carriedout as follows, using commercial sausage-making equipment for grindingand chopping. A Polish-sausage formula was made up as follows:

The experimental run, as compared to the control, showed very goodconsistency in the chopper and stutter. No difficulty was encountered inthe smoke-house or cooling operation. There was no fat separation norwater pockets. The yield from the experimental batch was 118 pounds asagainst 108 pounds for the control, showing approximately a 10-percentincrease in yield. General quality of the finished product wasexcellent.

Polish sausage is a typical cooked or emulsion-type sausage which isclosely related to frankfurters and Bologna. Additional runs Were made,using the formula above, over a period of 3 weeks. The total number ofruns was 16. There was no substantial differences in any of the runs.Yields averaged about the same throughout.

EXAMPLE 3 This example illustrates the preparation of all-beeffrankfurters. The beef used was in the estimated ratio of about :15 oflean to fat. A control run was made at the same time as the experimentalrun. The formulae are presented in Table 3.

The chopping, stufling, smoking, cooking, and cooling operations werethe same as in the preceding examples. There was no fat separation orwater pockets observable, and the yield on the experimental run wasabout 5 percent higher than the controls. In addition to the aboveexamples, similar runs were made on other all-beef frankfurters and onstandard formulae of Thuringer and ring Bologna. The results weresubstantially similar to those of the foregoing examples.

I claim: In a method of manufacturing emulsion-type sausages having asessential ingredients meat seasoning and curing agents, and water,comprising macerating the meat ingredients in the presence of Water, theimprovement comprising incorporating with said ingredients during themaceration thereof 0.1 to 1.0 percent, based on the meat-fat formula, ofa water-extractable proteinaceous material from oil-free soybeanmaterial that has been previously extracted with a lower aliphaticalcohol and from 0.02 to 0.2 percent on the same basis of sodiumhexametaphosphate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,035,136 Levinson et al. Mar. 24, 1936 2,060,160 Allen Nov. 10, 19362,355,548 Musher Aug. 8, 194 2,495,706 De Voss et al. Jan. 31, 19502,634,212 Komarik Apr. 7, 1953 2,635,963 Glabe Apr. 21, 1953

